Yong He Dou Jiang @ Taiwan

I wanted to write about some other “remote places” around the island, but it’s probably too far away or too unexciting for some of you. So this is truly, probably my last post on Taiwan (unless I’m going there again :D)

Yong He Dou Jiang is almost synonymous to a traditional and authentic Taiwanese breakfast. However, as I googled around, I was shocked to read about Yong He Dou Jiang’s history.

*clear phlegm and start my grandmother’s story*

In 1950’s, there was an influx of China Chinese immigrants to Taipei and most of them settled down at Yong He, a small town in the Taipei county. To make a living, most of them set up stalls that sells soya bean products and staple food such as you tiao and shao bing. Business usually starts as early as 3am because a lot of preparation need to be done.

It wasn’t until the baseball fever that these stalls got a lot of businesses and attentions. It was a nationwide thing to watch Taiwan baseball team in Little League Baseball, Williamsport during the 1970s. As the nationals stayed awake into the wee hours of the morning watching and listening to the live broadcast due to time differences, everyone is hungry by the time the game ended. These stalls were the only eateries that starts business early. So everyone  flocked to Yong He area to cure their hungry pangs. Through words of mouth, the Yong He area is booming with identical soya bean shops which created a trade mark issue.

Most people referred Dou Jiang shops around Yong He area as Yong He Dou Jiang. In 1985, a Taiwanese businessman registered a trade name under Yong He Dou Jiang and manufacture the soya bean drink and manage it as a brand. However, there are still other similiar names like Yong He Mei, Yong He Tian Xia etc that exist.

The point is, Yong He (the franchise) or not Yong He (similiar name), it doesn’t really matter because most traditional breakfast shop in Taiwan are probably the same. We went to this Yong He outlet at Fuxing South Road, and I can’t tell whether it’s the franchise or it’s just another breakfast shop.

flatbread stuffed with eggs and green onions 蛋饼

hou bing with deep fried cruller 厚饼油条

crispy sao bing with scallions filling 烧饼

hot rice drink 米浆 and soya bean milk 豆浆

The food  was decent but nothing beats my favourite breakfast place in Taiwan – Fu-Hang Dou Jiang 阜杭豆漿. Be prepared for the LOOOOONG queue though.

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